Researcher’s Log: Day 20

I am not a fan of Philippine research funding agencies. A talk with a senior marine science researcher last week left me frustrated: we were having a discussion regarding a certain seaweed; my superior wanted me to study the said seaweed for its utility, the senior marine science researcher wanted on the other hand to explore its very interesting ecology. Apparently, out of the two interests raised, the higher probability for research funding goes to the one that intends to explore the seaweed’s utility. Our country’s science and technology department is currently pegged at developing products and transferable technology, which meant lesser to almost zero funding for basic science research.

I feel bad that some (if not most) biological organisms only become interesting to people after the exploitation of their potential to whatever human-beneficial utility.

Maybe this is too conservative for someone involved in biotechnology research. And so the crisis begins.

Researcher’s Log: Day 11

During my previous employment as a call center agent, my trainer told me that I should not think about work outside work hours. That’s relatively easy to do, if not a natural act in itself already, when you are in the customer service industry.

Ignoring work outside work hours as a researcher is a different order of business, though. I am not particularly passionate about the project I am currently in, and most of my interest is sparked by the possibility of being in the water. I am still dragging my previously sedentary thinking faculties towards active mode, and the self-inflicted intimidation from the people I work with is not helping. I like what I do though, and the researcher’s lifestyle is working for me. That’s mostly what I think about, actually. Possibilities. 

I say I am not particularly passionate about my project because I have yet to discover a research niche to work my way on. Marine Biotechnology is interesting enough, but a without-a-shadow-of-doubt lifetime commitment to it is still nonexistent. 

My mind is trying to sort its preferences. Earlier last year, I decided to apply for the MS Biology program, and I got in last November. Enrollment would be this June, but after being better educated about other options, my mind is considering shifting its interests to Molecular Biology and Biotechnology or Marine Biotechnology instead. In the same manner though that I couldn’t develop passion for my current research niche, I can’t say with utmost finality which MS program I’ll be enrolling in this coming first semester.

So maybe today is not the day of figuring things out. Let’s just say it’s a day of considering the possibilities. 

10-Year-Old Accidentally Creates New Molecule in Science Class

Clara Lazen is the discoverer of tetranitratoxycarbon, a molecule constructed of, obviously, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. It’s got some interesting possible properties, ranging from use as an explosive to energy storage. Lazen is listed as the co-author of a recent paper on the molecule. But that’s not what’s so interesting and inspiring about this story. What’s so unusual here is that Clara Lazen is a ten-year-old fifth-grader in Kansas City, MO. Kenneth Boehr, Clara’s science teacher, handed out the usual ball-and-stick models used to visualize simple molecules to his fifth-grade class. But Clara put the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms together in a particular complex way and asked Boehr if she’d made a real molecule. Boehr, to his surprise, wasn’t sure. So he photographed the model and sent it over to a chemist friend at Humboldt State University who identified it as a wholly new but also wholly viable chemical.

The chemical has the same formula as one other in HSU’s database, but the atoms are arranged differently, so it qualifies as a unique molecule. It doesn’t exist in nature, so it’d have to be synthesized in a lab, which takes time and effort. So Boehr’s friend, Robert Zoellner, wrote a paper on it instead, to be published in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. Listed as a co-author: Clara Lazen.

Boehr says the discovery and subsequent publication has incited a new interest in science and chemistry at his school—and Clara seems particularly pleased, saying she’s now much more interested in biology and medicine.